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I have been playing Rift again for about a month now. I have had fun and enjoy the content the game offers. Rift is a beautiful game with alot of AAA material in it, but Trion (imo) made quite a few mistakes when it came to changing the game. I use to play the game before because it offered tough content.... they went the way of WoW and gradually nerfed much of it in lower levels, with it safe to say pve content use to be a lot harder across the board. They also made "cross-everything"! There is no need for factions anymore because the Guardians and Defiant share everything. PvP loses some of that banter and bragging rights when Guardians and Defiant fight alongside each other now. Even guilds are not a sacred place to kick it with your faction because they share those now too.

This gamer can say with the greatest of confidence that this is an attempt to overshadow the fact that the population has massively dwindled over the year. They have 8 shards now. that includes oceanic. If you do the math of how many people a server can hold you can figure out the population is very low.

Now with that said, I do enjoy much about the game. The Soul System alone is enough to keep me happy for a while. The world is beautiful and engaging. The combat works and skills have been worked and tuned to be a decent balance (especially in PvP). I have noticed some classes become tough to take down at higher levels, but all in all no class makes a "game changer" in PvP.

I wish Hartman well with whatever his next adventure brings him. I look forward to (more than likely) a F2P model in Rift soon. All in all it is sad that Rift didn't capture the hearts of more gamers. It is much better at what it does than many other MMOs out there. If you haven't tried it yet give it a go.

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I don't think that Rift will sink, it will still have its fanbase. I must admit, i've found the expansion dull, grindy and uninspiring and decided not to buy it and resub - did not like the new zones, and it felt that the expansion did not bring anything genuinely new, just more "content", which equals more grind. Anyway, the game is not in a bad spot, i'd take it over WoW any day, because of the soul system and the liberty and variations it offers, even if i've found MoP to be vastly superior for me: the monk was extremely cool, i've also enjoyed the Tillers (farming minigame), the pet battles were a blast... i guess in the end it boils down to that for me, SL did not bring enough "fresh" things, just more of the same old.

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Originally posted by simmihiI don't think that Rift will sink, it will still have its fanbase. I must admit, i've found the expansion dull, grindy and uninspiring and decided not to buy it and resub - did not like the new zones, and it felt that the expansion did not bring anything genuinely new, just more "content", which equals more grind. Anyway, the game is not in a bad spot, i'd take it over WoW any day, because of the soul system and the liberty and variations it offers, even if i've found MoP to be vastly superior for me: the monk was extremely cool, i've also enjoyed the Tillers (farming minigame), the pet battles were a blast... i guess in the end it boils down to that for me, SL did not bring enough "fresh" things, just more of the same old.

Obviously you wouldn't take it over WoW because further down in your post you praise all of the new stuff WoW put into MoP. I for one lost interest in WoW after the death of talent trees and panda invasion.

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Originally posted by Xepo

Originally posted by simmihiI don't think that Rift will sink, it will still have its fanbase. I must admit, i've found the expansion dull, grindy and uninspiring and decided not to buy it and resub - did not like the new zones, and it felt that the expansion did not bring anything genuinely new, just more "content", which equals more grind. Anyway, the game is not in a bad spot, i'd take it over WoW any day, because of the soul system and the liberty and variations it offers, even if i've found MoP to be vastly superior for me: the monk was extremely cool, i've also enjoyed the Tillers (farming minigame), the pet battles were a blast... i guess in the end it boils down to that for me, SL did not bring enough "fresh" things, just more of the same old.

Obviously you wouldn't take it over WoW because further down in your post you praise all of the new stuff WoW put into MoP. I for one lost interest in WoW after the death of talent trees and panda invasion.

I would take it over WoW because all in all, Rift is a better game for me, i feel that i have more options regarding my character, and I mostly play these games for character development (and sometimes for crafting, but neither WoW or Rift excel at that). At the same time, I find MoP to be a better expansion compared to SL, because MoP actually did bring lots of fresh stuff (and some bad stuff which i do not enjoy), while SL felt just the same for me, no new major things except the new levels. Instant Adventure? We already have Dungeon Finder and some people (not me) find that awful, a "quest finder" for single player play (and sometimes groups, depends on the time of the day) was not needed, really. Instant Adventure is something I ever forgot that existed, like scenarios in MoP, i do not like those either.

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I don't know what to make of that. Hartsman was a true fan of his product back when RIFT made release. I still remember him telling a game reporter to go uhm "screw" themself. I didn't agree with everything they did in RIFT but think it was a fine game and I always respected the work the team put in. I hate to read of them struggling even if it wasn't really the game for me. Maybe one day they will go buy to play as free to play would kill what makes their product appealing in the long run (in my opinion.)

I hope Hartsman finds a good spot in the industry somewhere. Nice to see a game made by people that love their games.

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Well I looked on hartsman facebook page nothing has changed there in days. Now on linked in it shows him no longer working for trion but working for himself as an problem solving expert. Looks like he will be looking for a new game. Nothing on twitter in fact I guess he does not have a twitter account .

I don't think he stepped down on his on, that letter almost read as " I am leaving the team knows what to do without me".

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Originally posted by erictlewis

Well I looked on hartsman facebook page nothing has changed there in days. Now on linked in it shows him no longer working for trion but working for himself as an problem solving expert. Looks like he will be looking for a new game. Nothing on twitter in fact I guess he does not have a twitter account .

I don't think he stepped down on his on, that letter almost read as " I am leaving the team knows what to do without me".

He hasn't updated his blog in a long time either. It's an interesting read. I don't really agree with some of his design philosophies but I liked a lot of what he did in Rift and EQ2. Kunark is probably my favorite EQ2 xpac.

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His resignation letter, as well as the new head guy at Rift's state of the game level, were both pretty half assed that didnt do anything to address any player concerns. Post SL has been an absolute disaster so far and there isnt just chinks in trion's armor, its cracked and desperately trying to stay on.

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Originally posted by Torvaldr

Originally posted by erictlewis

Well I looked on hartsman facebook page nothing has changed there in days. Now on linked in it shows him no longer working for trion but working for himself as an problem solving expert. Looks like he will be looking for a new game. Nothing on twitter in fact I guess he does not have a twitter account .

I don't think he stepped down on his on, that letter almost read as " I am leaving the team knows what to do without me".

He hasn't updated his blog in a long time either. It's an interesting read. I don't really agree with some of his design philosophies but I liked a lot of what he did in Rift and EQ2. Kunark is probably my favorite EQ2 xpac.

We'll see. I wish him and the rest good luck.

Yeah, Hartsman did a good job on the Kunark xpac for EQ2. I have been enjoying dimensions quite a bit as well. Here is to hoping that everything moves forward for Rift after his departure.

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It's pretty simple, really. This type of themepark is not going to cut it anymore. Rift had a nice run, and Trion is a neat company, but Rift is part of a dying paradigm, or at least a paradigm that is shrinking. There will always be room for a couple themeparks, but there probably won't be a WoW-killer that is a pure themepark. By adding Dimensions, you can see that Trion is getting their heads wrapped around player driven content now, but just tacking on housing instances is not enough.

I saw the same thing The Secret World, a game that should never have been a pure themepark. They threw in the RP Theater features so players could have some fun, but it's too little, too late. They could have added many more important hybrid features before worrying about that theater.

Game developers have got to understand by now, that if you are developing a pure themepark game at this stage, your business plan should be designed to get all the money you want back out of it within 90 days. If your game remains profitable longer, great, but don't count on it.

On another note, I think it was brilliant for Trion to take ArchAge on, and I'm betting they will learn a lot from it. I can't think of many game companies I would be happy handling ArchAge for NA, and Trion is in the top 3 based on pure professionalism and how much effort they put into making Rift a great game.

A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.

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While I do like how Trion kept updating the game on a routine basis I did not like the style it went with. The game when I quit was as close to a WoW clone as you could get and this further proves no matter how hard you stretch it, Subscription gaming is soon to be dead.

If your idea of a Sandbox is open FFA Full Loot PvP, full crafted world with minimal support for anything combat then your sandbox ideas are bad! Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!

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Endgame item threadmills are not my thing (I do raid), i also played between 1 to 3 month every AAA "themepark" out there. Rift had many glaring design philosophies and bugs *I* do not agree upon. However even if it didn't had those after 2 months i did all i wanted. Today, there is enough content after one year to justify one more month of sub.

But who's gonna pay the year in between?

The Raiders who like this game got today a satureated market (GW2 / SWTOR / WOW / LOTRO etc) and people who like a more sandbox approach to do stuff don't get enough content outside of the gear threatmill.

I would say the people who are whilling to spend money on subs on very limited themepark content shrink each day. 4 Years ago people had to sit it out till something new released. Today there are so many AAA mmos and even more coming. No one sits it out and pays a sub to a game they barely play.

They rather jump ship *smirks*, than waiting for new content. These Themeparks are bound to go F2P buy design. I Disagree that AAA MMOs (Especially sandpark - box) can only survive as F2P.

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Originally posted by MindTrigger

It's pretty simple, really. This type of themepark is not going to cut it anymore. Rift had a nice run, and Trion is a neat company, but Rift is part of a dying paradigm, or at least a paradigm that is shrinking. There will always be room for a couple themeparks, but there probably won't be a WoW-killer that is a pure themepark. By adding Dimensions, you can see that Trion is getting their heads wrapped around player driven content now, but just tacking on housing instances is not enough.

I saw the same thing The Secret World, a game that should never have been a pure themepark. They threw in the RP Theater features so players could have some fun, but it's too little, too late. They could have added many more important hybrid features before worrying about that theater.

Game developers have got to understand by now, that if you are developing a pure themepark game at this stage, your business plan should be designed to get all the money you want back out of it within 90 days. If your game remains profitable longer, great, but don't count on it.

On another note, I think it was brilliant for Trion to take ArchAge on, and I'm betting they will learn a lot from it. I can't think of many game companies I would be happy handling ArchAge for NA, and Trion is in the top 3 based on pure professionalism and how much effort they put into making Rift a great game.

I don't think it has anything to do with thempark vs sandbox. In fact, I think Sandbox games will sink faster as they have such a high learning curve and are pretty boring, in my opinion. I think it has more do with whether or not the game has new material for all level of players or not. Stormlegion was only for the players who have already maxed out characters so they lost the repeatability factor. That to me is the biggest problem. If Trion would have added another new intro area to the game, then I could see playing again. Right now, no. Also is the fact they used to have 2 separate factions but now can be mixed into three different ones? They lost their footing in ther own storyline/lore and that is one of the other issues going against the game.

I don't think player housing, added into any game, will save a game. It is another time sink/money sink is all. A grind is a grind and that is the issue. If you want new players and your current base to continue to play and start new characters, it can't be the same old areas over and over.

If Rift is going down, it means the company doesn't have the staying power or the people and it does not bode well for any game that they develop/publish. It means they will punish Paul to pay Peter, not a good way to run a game. They did some great things but they also did some really dumb things, which ultimately killed the game for me after 1 year of subbing to Rift. That means, to me, it doesn't bode well for Archage as they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater - if they do it to a game they put time into, why wouldn't they do it to one they are just publishing?

"In 50 years, when I talk to my grandchildren about these days, I'll make sure to mention what an accomplished MMO player I was. They are going to be so proud ..."by Naqaj - 7/17/2013 MMORPG.com forum